Various Storms and Saints

I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up listening to sound bites about how all is well at Celtic. The squad is united, the management team and the board have a strong relationship…

Actions speak louder than words.

In recent weeks we’ve seen how well the management team and the board are getting on. Transfers not making it over the line. Dirty laundry being aired in public. Players being promised one thing and getting another, then going on a huff at crucial times.

If there’s nothing wrong, then let’s start showing it. January better be a far better transfer window. We better be prepared with who we want and get the business done early.

But that can wait until then. It needs to.

Right now, it’s on the park we need to see the evidence. Kilmarnock bench warmer Kris Boyd was using his newspaper column to bring the game into disrepute by commenting on a rival club. I’m astounded this is allowed, and not the first time either.

He doesn’t even make much sense. If he thinks the dressing room is fractured by Dedryck Boyata getting back into the team then he clearly didn’t see the entire team congratulate him after he scored the only goal of the Hamilton game. That looked pretty united to me, on a day when sections of the fans showed they weren’t behind him.

If there’s a fracture then it’s there. But even that seems to have repaired itself. A series of good performances from Boyata have done that, and although it will take a long time to forgive it only goes to prove the point.

No one is interested in what you say, just get out there and play for the jersey.

We need more of the squad to step up now, and tonight has to be the start of it. This is the League Cup, and there’s no room to slip up again. Slip up tonight and the double treble ends as we have to give up one of the three trophies.

The trouble is, we’re away from home. We haven’t won away from home since our first game this season against Alashkert. Since that victory we’ve drawn away to Rosenborg, lost to AEK Athens and drawn away to Suduva in Europe. We’ve also lost to Hearts at Tynecastle, drawn with St Mirren in Paisley, and lost at Kilmarnock on Sunday.

Six away games without a win. We need to make sure it doesn’t become seven.

St Johnstone topped their section with three wins and a draw in games against Falkirk, Montrose, Forfar Athletic and East Fife. They then took extra time to see off Queen of the South in Dumfries in the second round.

In the league, they’ve taken eight points from their first six games, two less than is. On Sunday they were hammered 5-1 at Ibrox, but prior to that they had a 1-1 draw at home against Aberdeen. They’ve also drawn with Hibernian, so they’ve not exactly had the easiest start to the season.

Their results have certainly been helped by signing up an old friend of ours. Tony Watt hasn’t exactly kicked on as we all once hoped, and he’s had more clubs than Tiger Woods, but in Perth he seems to have regained some of his form that ultimately earned him Neil Lennon’s faith in bringing him on at home to Barcelona.

A night he along with the rest of us will never forget.

We still have a busy schedule ahead of us. Aberdeen follow at the weekend and had to endure extra time and penalties last night. We then have an away game in Europe before we’re back to McDiarmid Park again in the league. But given our recent problems, maybe now is not the time to mess around with squad rotation. We need some momentum before we reach another international break, and we need to start lifting ourselves up the league table.

But tonight we just have to make sure we’re in the semi final draw after the game. A decent performance will help that, but any away win will be a more than welcome start.